Tetro

Enthralling, captivating. Buenos Aires, maybe? Black and White scope mostly, the limpid soul and devastating smile of Alden Ehrenreich. Coppola enjoys his freedom and so do we. At the base of it all, a juicy melodrama but the master flies over it with a tireless, youthful zest. Vincent Gallo seem a bit of an odd choice to play the title role and in fact I just found out that Matt Dillon was supposed to have played it. It certainly would have added up the romanticism and the sensuality that runs through it but, never mind. Alden Ehrenreich as Bennie is, quite simply, fantastic. Maribel Verdu another stand out as Tetro's loving if long suffering companion. Karl Maria Brandauer is horribly perfect, a character that emanates the kind of debauchery fame and rotten ego can provide. "There is room for just one genius in this family" I saw the film last night and it hasn't left me for a moment. I can't wait to see it again.

17 year-old Bennie works as a waiter on a cruiseship. When the ship suffers engine difficulties and docks in Buenos Aires, he uses the opportunity to attempt to reconnect with his estranged brother Tetro, a once promising writer. He is welcomed with open arms by Tetro's girlfriend, Miranda. She longs to know the truth behind her boyfriends past and what made him the misanthrope he is today. Tetro is hostile towards his brother, his plan was to never see any of his family again, and so keeps him at arms length. Bennie discovers an incomplete play, written in code whilst his brother was undergoing psychiatric treatment. He decides to finish the play and enter it in a festival run by Argentina's most powerful critic, Alone. Faced with this upheaval, Tetro is forced to come to terms with his relationship to his younger brother and his father, a famous conductor.

Tetro is, at its core, a film about family, in particular the relationship between brothers and their Father. A theme Francis Ford Coppola has immersed himself in before, most notably in The Godfather and Rumble Fish. Through a series of flashbacks we are given a glimpse of major events in Tetro's youth, his relationship with his father (played by Klaus Brandauer) and his subsequent departure. There are huge family secrets known only to Tetro and revealed to Bennie in an ending which echoes great literary and operatic works. Coppolas love of opera and theater is stamped all over the script and the city of Buenos Aires seems to be the perfect background in which to set this story.

Shot stunningly in digital monochrome with colour flashbacks, it has some aesthetic similarities to Rumble Fish. Coppola and cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. reportedly site On The Waterfront and La Notte as big influences on the films visual style. There are certainly elements of both here, with the film also retaining its visual sense of self. It is operatic in both its narrative and its mise-en-scene. The idea of cutting between colour and monochrome as well as changing aspect ratios sounds as if it would be jarring, and it typically is. But for the purposes of Tetro it works perfectly.

Seen as a controversial choice by some, Vincent Gallo brings an edge to the titular character that some other actors may have lacked. However it is newcomer Alden Ehrenreich who steals the show as Bennie, a wayward teenager looking for guidance and approval. Maribel Verdu, as Miranda, provides the conduit between the two in a typicaly solid performance.

Hollywood is littered with once great directors who have fallen from grace, which makes Tetro all the more remarkable as a return to form from one of the greatest, Francis Ford Coppola.

For Francis Ford Coppola, the last forty years have been an uphill battle, not only with critics but also against an adoring public who have held him to the highest of standards since such masterpieces as "The Godfather" and "The Godfather: Part 2", both having brought home Best Picture Oscars and garnering best Director nods, the latter presenting him with the win. Films like "One from the Heart" and "Peggy Sue Got Married" make even his most hardcore of fans wonder, "What the hell is going through this guys freakin' skull?" Can directors truly lose their finesse? Can these just be metaphorical ruts like we've seen from the recent string of M. Night Shyamalan disasterpieces? What's the exact percentage ratio of wine from Coppola Vineyards that he consumes to that of which he produces? I digress. Now two years after the mediocre "Youth Without Youth", Coppola churns out "Tetro", a small little self authored Indy film that may just be the one he needs to regain credibility in the eyes of his audiences. The question is…does he pull it off? Bennie (Played by fresh face Alden Ehrenreich) has traveled to Buenos Aires to re-connect with his estranged brother (Vincent Gallo, Buffalo 66') who now goes by the name of "Tetro". Upon his arrival, he is greeted by the gorgeous Miranda (Mirabel Verdu), Tetro's girlfriend, who graciously invites him to stay at their home against Tetro's own reservations. It doesn't take long before Bennie begins to realize that his long lost brother is not the person he once was, but rather an on edge, manic and short tempered poet. "When I met him," says Miranda, "he said he was a writer. He held everything he ever wrote against his chest." As the story unfolds absolutely nothing is what it appears to be and when Bennie gets his hands on one of Tetro's unfinished plays, he finds out that the true story of his family holds secrets darker than he could have ever imagined.

Simply put, "Tetro" is Francis Ford Coppola's reinvention back into "quality" cinema and a perfect example of the wonder that can be achieved when a Director is in control of practically all creative aspects of his work. Don't be mistaken, if you're looking for the Coppola from the 70's, he's long gone. This new Coppola has been reborn, emerging as someone quite different. Funded entirely through revenue from his private vineyard, he's created one of the most stylistically atmospheric black and white films that I've seen in recent memory. One can't help but feel that there are heavy influences by the great Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini throughout, especially through the incorporation of operatic high drama and scenes that feel all too autobiographic to be dismissed as pure coincidence. In addition, there is a subtle Noir accent which is credited to Mihai Malaimare's gorgeous cinematography. Coppola is now, a true Indy, non-conformist filmmaker and my gut tells me that he really doesn't care. Instead, he doesn't give it all away, but rather does an exceptional job of keeping the motives, feelings and details about his characters well hidden for the longest possible duration of time until it is inevitable for such crucial facts to be revealed solely to aid the plot.

Mainstream audiences may just come to hate Tetro. It has an overall "artsy" coat to it that many of today's average moviegoers may not be able to get past. This includes extended, sporadically placed dance sequences from Powell and Pressburger's celluloid Opera "The Tales of Hoffmann" as well as original ballet numbers which are used to convey character emotions and cleverly emphasis certain themes. That said, foreign film aficionados, especially those of such Directors as Giuseppe Tornatore or Michael Radford, will be delighted with Coppola's knowledge of the Genre and passionate homage to those who have coined it. Through the script, he is precise and very careful with what he chooses to include as well as place importance on. With many scenes purely dialogue driven, he is a master of building tension without having to rely on the support of quick cutting, action or special effects to drive home his points.

Actor Vincent Gallo, in one of his first non-self Directed/self written films, fits comfortably into the role of Tetro. His narcissism (which I believe is in fact also grounded in his real life) brings life to the part and he's believable straight up to the films shocking conclusion. There is a certain vulnerability and a hurt that Gallo also manages to convey which is really what makes Tetro such an interesting character to watch on screen. Newcomer Alden Ehrenreich has a look matched by the likes of Leonardo DeCaprio, and certainly has the acting chops to pull it off. There is a definite star appeal about him that seems to emanate naturally which will certainly cause him to gain more roles and credibility as a performer in the future. Mirabel Verdu is absolutely stunning as Miranda and gives off a "Sophia Loren" type elegance, a role that rounds out the feeling that what we're experiencing is in part truly a charming foreign film coming out of what was once a mainstream filmmakers body.

Tetro is a testament to the fact that an artist can pick himself up over the course of decades and learn from his failures as well as his successes. Francis Ford Coppola's recent work is bold, daring and symbolizes his true love for the medium. At its heart you can see that the characters, story and attention to even the most minor of details are shown so much love and care that they could only be executed by a passionate and dedicated creative mind. My only regret after seeing Tetro is that more people will turn down the opportunity to open their eyes and experience it for themselves.

Tetro may be the "best" film Francis Ford Coppola has made in over 15 years. Whether this speaks more to the quality of his present state of direction as an artist or on the relative hits and misses of his career in the dregs of Hollywood (be it aiming high and just missing the mark with Godfather 3 and Dracula to stuff that went over people's heads like Youth Without Youth to even crap like Jack) is a combination. He's someone who attained financial success at a time, but then lost nearly all of it and along with it, arguably, some of his artistic merit. But after years of laying low and making wine, and making a whacked-out experiment that people either dug as an abstract piece or hated to hell ('Youth'), he comes out with Tetro like a porn star with a five-foot erection. He's got something to prove, if not to his audience then himself, and he proves it with a story that is personal and a film-making technique that recalls other masters but never too directly.

Tetro is about family, a subject Coppola is, of course, well-versed in being it the notorious kind (of course, the Godfather) and the more low-level and oddly intimate (Rumble Fish). It's a story, as with Rumble Fish, told in crisp black and white widescreen with flashes of color for flashbacks which may or may not be real, and as homage to operas like The Tales of Hoffmann. The title character, wonderfully and intensely portrayed by Vincent Gallo, is in a creative exile in Buenos Aires, a once promising writer living with his doctor-wife (Maribel Verdu, great as always) who is paid a visit one day by a young man, his brother Bennie (baby-faced newcomer Alden Ehrenreich) who hasn't seen him in years. There's secrets withheld by Tetro, not least of which about their parents, and soon an unfinished, longhand written play by Tetro (real name Angelo) is discovered by Bennie in a suitcase. He'll finish his brother's play, but at what cost?

The damaged, almost bi-polar writer, the insistent and impressionable brother, the strong but uncertain woman, these characters are fully realized by Coppola, and then on top of this comes a sort of terrific puzzle that is constructed through Tetro's unfinished play: what about their father, a famous composer (Klaus Maria Brandeur) who split them apart, possibly, or possibly not? What about their mother, who died in a car accident? What about the bond between Tetro and his former mentor, "Alone", the dubbed "most important critic in South America" who has created a pretentious empire around herself? Questions arise, and Coppola rises to the challenge of giving the audience answers but not spoon-fed. It's first and foremost a story of family, of brothers who love but have to find ways to contend with their damaged selves(inspiration being Rocco and His Brothers mayhap), and it's here that it's just about classic, on par with Rumble Fish if not even deeper and wiser about the effect of parents, or lack thereof, in lives spent and possibly wasted.

The writing is immensely interesting, always, even when Coppola may fall into over-indulging in his fantastic self-indulgence as an artist, such as with the operatic flourishes towards the end (this may not make sense, but compared to the WAY over indulgence of the hard-to-defend Y. W. Y it will). If anything the little imperfections, those brush strokes that go so high with the colors and shadows and impressionistic lighting that he and DP Mihai Malaimaire Jr engage in (one who hopefully will be getting more work following such spectacular work on a mix of 35mm and HD) along with Walter Murch's dependable editing, make it an even stronger work. It should feel a little messy here and there, because its subject matter is about finding a sense of purpose, in each other and in one's art. One feels Coppola working through a history of close but torn family ties, of losing loved ones (i.e. His own son), and at the same time a love of them all and of cinema peeking through in nearly every scene, even the ones where it doesn't look like much is going on.

Tetro is the antidote, basically, for this month's Transformers sequel. If you need to find the polar opposite of a picture based practically on just making money and reeling in the crowds with its dumb giant robot battles and preposterous and shallow theatrics, look no further than a picture which cares about its characters, its multi-faceted story and themes, and about projecting a technique that hearkens back to cinema of the 50s and 60s while sticking to an originality by its filmmaker. This will likely stay with me for a while, which is what Coppola's most profound works have done.

I can see a lot of connection between Copolla's 1983 Rumble Fish and this 2009 Tetro. Firstly there's that same inky black monochrome that's as dark as night and with the occasional splash of colour. Then, there's the brotherly relationship, here between Vincent Gallo and Alden Ehrenreich.

It's a while since I last watched Rumble Fish but the brothers there were Mickey Rourke (a rare good film for him at that time) and Matt Dillon. It's about street gangs and pool halls and how an older brother can be very impressionistic on a younger sibling. I'll say no more, except it's a blinder of a film and better than this.

I would have to say that the monochrome cinematography here, though, that everybody drools over is just too dark and contrasty, for this subject and film. I'm a photographer, so hopefully know and whilst Rumble Fish looked superb, that was full of geometric angles and angular paradoxes. Here, the screen is often plunged into almost darkness much of the time.

There is a balletic beauty to much of it though and we veer away from Rumble Fish and on to his works of epic greatness. The Godfathers and Apocalypse Now all share with this, an operatic build up of artistic and emotional tension that is mesmerising. Tetro has this toward the end at the Festival and we start anticipating something big and great. Do we get it? You'll have to see it yourself...

Others have touched on the actual storyline and I'm going to leave that to them. That said, the cast are all good but oddly, Vincent Gallo, as Tetro seems to short-change us. Not performance wise but in that we just don't seem to get to know him, which is part of the whole story, of course. Clamming up into a shell is nature's way of protecting us, emotionally, which is what Tetro did - and still does.

One major plus to this, very bog-standard DVD, was the sound quality - I 'felt' the sound as much as heard it. It prickled my eardrums with a tactile clarity, certainly Hi-fi standard, plus. OK, it was through separate amp and speakers but is as all my TV watching is.

Is Tetro a film for you? That's a difficult one. Art-house cinema lovers probably will and those who like a drama that is quite complex also but those who want action and something akin to Apocalypse Now, no. It is long, visually rich and dark (like plain chocolate) and accordingly, not for everybody but for those who do, it holds many strengths.